The Health department is launching a new initiative, Balamitra, for early detection of leprosy in anganawadi children as part of the State’s march towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of leprosy eradication by 2025.
Through active case finding in the community, the Health department had detected and treated 311 new cases of leprosy among adults. In the last five years, the number of leprosy cases among children were 49, 60, 52, 9 and 17 respectively. In order to achieve the SDG target of leprosy eradication, the leprosy incidence among children will have to be brought down from the current 1.2 per million population to less than 0.6 per million population. Alongside, the number of children who end with disability following leprosy should be zero.
It is to fulfil this target that this drive has been planned.
